MTS, Europe's premier facilitator for the electronic fixed income market, today announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government Debt Management Agency Pte Ltd (ÁKK Zrt), the Hungarian debt management agency, to launch an electronic interdealer market for local government debt.
Hungary will join the existing 15 countries that already use MTS for their primary and secondary government bond markets. The market will aim to be operational by first week of January 2012.
A number of leading international banks, including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, have already declared their interest in participating in the new electronic bond market, and have already begun working towards its implementation.
Laszlo Buzas, Deputy CEO at ÁKK Zrt, said:
"We are very pleased to be working with MTS to build an efficient electronic market for Hungarian debt. MTS has a proven track record of building and managing electronic fixed income markets across Europe, and with this partnership we will bring best practice and further liquidity to the Hungarian bond market, while meeting existing and evolving regulatory requirements for transparency and operational stability."
Jack Jeffery, Chief Executive of MTS, said:
"We are delighted to be providing this infrastructure in Hungary, which will help meet a growing demand to electronically trade Hungarian sovereign debt. This announcement follows the recent launch of an electronic market for Czech government bonds and further expands MTS's footprint in Central Europe."
Uberto Palomba, Managing Director, Head of CEE Trading at Goldman Sachs, said:
"The introduction of electronic trading marks a further step in the evolution of the Hungarian fixed income market towards practices that will improve all aspects of trading and price discovery, for all parties involved".
Zoltan Kurali, Chief Country Officer of Deutsche Bank in Hungary, said:
"MTS's combination of proven products, technology and network of counterparties facilitates the Government Debt Management Agency's initiative by enhancing Hungarian government debt's price transparency and, as a consequence, its attractiveness to Hungarian and international investors. We at Deutsche Bank have long been, and will remain committed to, the development of Hungarian capital markets and very much support this initiative."